I would say the eddy has more to do with the Pacific entering a
La Niña phase, as new cold pools
are forming where they once where warm.

Cold-water Eddy
'Monsters' Mighty Current Off Sydney
Live Science
Dr Griffin, from the Wealth from Oceans Flagship Research program, said
cold-water eddies regularly appear off Sydney.
“Until 20 years ago we would not have known they even existed without accidentally steaming through them on a research vessel,” he said.
Ocean eddies can have a life of 2-3 weeks although similar eddies identified off South Australia and Western Australia are known to have survived
several months.
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A La Niña in 2007?
The chance of a La Niña developing in 2007 is thought to be higher than the long-term average (which is about one in five or 20%) because (a) they
have a tendency to follow an El Niño; (b) the El Niño has decayed somewhat earlier than normal thereby giving time for a La Niña to begin
developing during the critical March to June period; and (c) a large pool of cold sub-surface water remains in the central to eastern tropical Pacific
Ocean and is starting to affect surface temperatures in the region. La Niña events are generally associated with wetter than normal conditions across
much of the eastern half of the country from about autumn. Computer models generally indicate further cooling in the Pacific Ocean.
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Would be interesting to study if the change in deep ocean currents could foretell an active tropical season.
[edit on 14-3-2007 by Regenmacher]